June Juanico
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June Juanico (born 19 November 1938) is an
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
fan from
Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...
, whom the famous
rock 'n' roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
singer dated in 1955 and 1956, for instance, when he took three weeks of vacation after having recorded his songs " Hound Dog" and "
Don't Be Cruel "Don't Be Cruel" is a song that was recorded by Elvis Presley and written by Otis Blackwell in 1956.Victor (2008), ''The Elvis Encyclopedia'', p.115-116 It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was listed #197 in '' Rol ...
" in the studio in New York City.


Elvis Presley

June Juanico had met Presley for the first time after one of his early concerts in Biloxi in 1955, when he was on the verge of superstardom. Elvis did not let this romance get too intimate. In a 1997 interview with the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'', she swears that she never had sex with Presley. "I was tempted to, oh, yeah. But I was a virgin and the times were different back then." In the same interview, she also blames his manager,
Colonel Tom Parker Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 January 21, 1997),
, for encouraging Presley to go out with beautiful women for the publicity. According to Elvis biographer
Peter Guralnick Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Caree ...
, Juanico did not doubt that Elvis loved her, but "she didn't know if she could ever get him back," because on one of their dates the singer was always talking about his best friend, actor Nick Adams. "He started telling her all about Nick and Nick's friends and
Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials. He became ...
, but she didn't want to hear."Peter Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley'' (1994), p.347-348. What really upset Juanico, though, was that Adams had started inviting himself to see Elvis, and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Elvis' attention. Adams would talk often about
Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
to Elvis, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Elvis to the glitz of Hollywood. Juanico's fears were not just a paranoia, as Elvis did have a short fling with Wood during his early days in Hollywood. Juanico was surprised when she heard about her former boyfriend's prescription drug abuse. "He never drank or did drugs when I was around him," she says. She thinks she might have prevented Elvis from becoming dependent on drugs when they had stayed together. "When Elvis died, I felt guilty. I've never been able to understand how he could be surrounded with so many people who supposedly loved him and yet they allowed him to do that to himself." She wrote a book on Presley entitled ''Elvis: In the Twilight of Memory'' (1997). According to the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' review, the book reads "like a high-school diary,
cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...
s abound, intimate descriptions of sexual fumblings tell us more than we really want to know, and dialogue between the lovers sounds like a movie script in dire need of rewrite. ... However, her description of a 'special afternoon with just the two of us at the piano' with Presley singing '
Unchained Melody "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert Rodri ...
, just for you, baby' is touching."


References


External links


June Juanico Remembers Elvis Presley
By Alanna Nash
Girls! Girls! Girls! From small-town women to movie stars, Elvis loved often but never true


{{DEFAULTSORT:Juanico, June 1938 births Living people Elvis Presley